Periodically we have shared our thoughts and others thoughts about the state of books and the publishing industry. There is no doubt that e-readers and Amazon have affected our business. Despite all the upheaval, there is one thing we know for sure: we love books, the paper kind.

You may remember a book that came out in November called My Bookstore: Writer’s Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop. As we start off the new year, I thought Emily St. John Mandel’s Afterword put things in perspective. In this excerpt, Emily reflects on comments made by Nicole Krauss, author of The History of Love and Great House, at Community Bookstore in Brooklyn:

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She [Nicole Krauss] had recently returned from a national tour for Great House, and she began telling us about conversations she’d had with a few people along the way who told her that they buy only e-books. When she asked why, they told her it was because it was more convenient. She found this interesting, she said. When, she asked, did convenience become the most important thing?

I personally have no quarrel with e-books and believe they’ll continue to co-exist with print, but there’s something in Krauss’s sentiment that resonates. I think it applies to the decision of how and where we buy our books.

There was a time when we–all of us, the general public–were referred to as citizens. At some point this shifted, and now we’re mostly called consumers. I have some real problems with this change because while citizenship implies rights and responsibilities, to my mind consumerism mostly just implies shopping.

And yet shadows of the original word remain. The word consumer, I’ve come to realize, comes with its own imitations of responsibility, in that it reflects a very basic fact of life in a capitalistic society, which is that we get to change the world we live in by means of where we spend our money. This concept is hardly new, but if it happens that you’re somebody who enjoys having a bookstore in your town, I would argue that it’s never been more important.

-Emily St. John Mandel

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I like that Emily’s message can be applied to any local business: your bakery, your favorite local restaurant, the grocery store around the corner, the mom-and-pop garden nursery and so on. These places give us community. Places like Best Buy and Wal-Mart and Amazon don’t do that. In 2013, we hope that we can continue to be your local bookstore as we, and many other local businesses, do our best to serve our community.

Bookstore Keys Series on Lemuria Blog

From 2011/2012: Reading One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of amazon.com (March 19) Where will e-book sales level out? (June 2) Indie Bookstores Buying from Amazon? (June 1) BEA Roundup (May 19) Lemuria’s Headed for NYC (May17) Barnes & Noble Bankrupt? (April 28) Decluttering the Book Market: Ads on the latest Kindle (April 14) Independents on the Exposed End of the Titanic? (April 6th) Border’s Bonuses (March 30) The Experience of Holding a Book (March15) Finding “Deep Time” in a Bookstore (March 8th) Reading The New Rules of Retail by Lewis & Dart (March 3) The Future Price of the Physical Book (Feb 18) Borders Declares Bankruptcy (Feb 16) How Great Things Happen at Lemuria (Feb 8th) The Jackson Area Book Market (Jan 25) What’s in Store for Local Bookselling Markets? (Jan 18) Selling Books Is a People Business (Jan 14) A Shift in Southern Bookselling? (Jan 13) The Changing Book Industry (Jan 11)

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